344



Correspondence.



bird is the same size and style as the chestnut-bellied Niltava, but the

colouring is even more striking. The crown of the head and the whole of

the back is a brilliant turquoise blue, the wings and tail being darker, each

feather edged with blue. Cheeks, throat and chest black ; underparts pure

white; flanks greyish.


This Niltava has an exceedingly sweet and varied song ; some

stanzas being not unlike an English Robin’s, others more resembling the

bird voices of the wild moors, as uttered by different Buntings and Pipits.

Its notes are superior to those of its chestnut-bellied cousin.


My azure blue, black and white Niltava flies about in my bedroom of

a morning, and is already becoming tame, darting down for a mealworm,

which he will very soon take from my fingers. If it is N. cyanomelcena it is

also a native of Japan. No doubt the female is a duller coloured bird.


Hubert D. Astley.



NESTING OF THE CRESTED LARK.


Sir, —I send you herewith a photo, of the second nest of the Crested

Larks. It was not possible to photograph the first nest satisfactorily on

account of the close proximity of a Yellow Wagtail incubating a clutch of

eggs. This second clutch hatched on the 5th of August. The four eggs

were much alike and do not resemble those of the first clutch ; their dimen¬

sions are .89m. by .65in. I gave two young Larks of the first brood to

Mr. C. Harrison, whose name was mentioned in my recent notes. For

years past he has been making experiments with a view to obtaining a seed¬

eating bird which will correctly imitate the song of the Nightingale and,

in my opinion, there is nothing so likely to perform the feat as a Crested

Lark, caged as a “runner ” before it has heard the song of its own species.

These two birds differed markedly, one being larger, greyer and having

more crest, the smaller one (which I took to be a hen) being much more

richly mottled with buff terminals to the feathers of the back, They were

extremely wild in the aviary and injured their heads severely, but became

quite steady when caged. The natural flight of this species is of the rising

and falling type, like that of our Skylark, and it was interesting to note

that, while the young always flew in this way, the adults flew in a straight

horizontal line, having evidently learned by experience that there was not

room in the aviary for the former method.


There were several typographical errors in my notes, as printed,

which did not occur in the MS. This was due to the fact that the latter

was sent in very late and that there was not tune to send me the proofs.


W. E. Teschemaker.



